20-acre North Brother Island could be redeveloped as park

Council member Mark Levine and North Brother Island in the Bronx (credit: Christopher Payne via Untapped Cities)

Three City Council members have proposed redeveloping the 20-acre, abandoned North Brother Island in the Bronx as a massive public park.

Mark Levine, the parks committee chair, was among the Council members to tour the island along the East River yesterday. Levine said building a park would not require an immediate, sizable financial investment.

“You don’t need to invest $100 million to open it to the public,” Levine told the New York Times. “You build a pier there and do it bit by bit.”

Council member Fernando Cabrera suggested developing the land into “something different,” like a Disneyland, the newspaper reported.